Conference Report - Shetland October 2 - 3 2006
This year’s British Marine Finfish Association (BMFA) conference in Shetland has been hailed as the best ever, with an excellent turnout of delegates. Interest was further spurred by a series of fact-finding trips to cod and halibut farms, and a cod processing plant.

Opening the event, BMFA chairman Alastair Barge reminded members of the extremely useful support work the Association carries out on their behalf, including sponsoring research & development, including important cod-vibrio vaccine work. It is also an active participant in the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF) and the Federation of Scottish Aquaculture Producers.

He also took the opportunity to praise recently retired BMFA secretary Jim Buchanan, who had been a stalwart of the association for many years.

“Jim presided over the growth of the association and one of his many successes was the introduction of our annual workshop, which brought in other researchers and stakeholders,” he said.

Richard Slaski, the new secretary, told delegates that marine finfish farming was not an easy industry and still faced a steep learning curve in terms of biology and production systems. A major challenge was to try and attract significant outside investment so as to help the industry grow.

“We are probably 15 years behind the salmon sector, but consumers are hungry for our products and the future is looking good,” he said.

Focusing on news species farming in Norway, Mike Thomson of Marine Harvest said farmed cod exports from Norway were 800 tonnes in 2004, which had risen to 2,300 tonnes the following year. Marine Harvest accounted for 60% of this figure.

The majority of this cod goes to multiple retailers in France, although a good amount is also exported to Denmark, mainly to processors.

The main issues that need to be overcome are potential problems with Francisella bacterial disease and the lack of reliable control over the maturation of cod.

Halibut exports from Norway amounted to 250 tonnes in 2003 and this had risen to 500 tonnes in 2005. Marine Harvest is currently producing between 10-15 tonnes per week, with the UK being the main export market, followed by the USA and Sweden. There has also been significant growth in the Norwegian retail market.

John Goodlad of Shetland Halibut provided an overview of marine finfish farming in Shetland and praised the pioneering work of Johnson Seafarms in producing cod.

“It is a wonderful product and many people in Shetland who know about fish acknowledge that farmed cod has a superior taste compared with wild caught fish.”

He said that there is potential in farming other species such as haddock, monkfish, plaice and wolf-fish. But for such ventures to succeed there needed to be more research work and he criticised the decision by the NAFC Marine Centre in Scalloway to close its hatchery 18 months ago as part of a cost cutting measure. It should, he said, be playing a pivotal role in the development of new species farming – apart from cod and halibut, as work was already well advanced on these species.

“The hatchery closure by NAFC was the wrong decision to take and it should be brought back into operation as it could play an important role in looking at new species. Shetland is in a tremendous position to take forward a new industry and the college has to support these new developments.”

Moving onto cod farming, and Lesley McEvoy of Johnson Seafarms (JSF) outlined plans for a major £1.7m expansion at its Nufish hatchery in the south of Shetland. Phase 1 of the project, which will involve the installation of 16 larval tanks, will see annual output increase to 1.5 million juvenile fish and once phase 2 is completed, this will rise to 3 million fish.

Alan Bourhill of JSF told delegates that the company was now harvesting to order seven days a week and its customers were getting a hand-processed product of the highest quality. However, he said a number of challenges still lay ahead and JSF was keen to build upon its links with academic research institutes and industry partners.

Key areas of research over the coming years will be on production technology, health management strategies, maturation and processing technology.

An important part of the success of JSF lay in the positive response its farmed cod had received in the press. The PR campaign has been co-ordinated by ING Media and its managing director, Leanne Tritton, told the conference of some of the successes achieved and how site visits by food and environmental writers to Shetland had proved particularly important in the campaign.

Feed sustainability was the focus of a presentation by Dr Graeme Dear, managing director of Skretting UK&I. He was upbeat about the prospects of the feed industry being able to meet the huge demands of a rapidly growing aquaculture sector. The increased substitution of feed with vegetable oils will be the most significant development over the next five to 10 years, he said.

The final presentation of the conference came from Karen Galloway, marketing manager of Seafish. She focused on the key issue of seafood and health and outlined current work in promoting the health benefits of seafood, particularly to children.

The message is beginning to hit home and consumer awareness of healthier foods is growing, with there being a move away from processed to more natural products. People under the age of 35 are also showing a trend of returning to cooking rather than relying on processed foods.

Seafish is putting particular emphasis on its ‘two-a-week’ message and a successful initiative in Scottish schools aimed at getting children to eat more seafood has now been rolled out into England.

Sponsors of the BMFA conference were the Scottish Executive, EU, Johnson Seafarms, BioMar, Dana Feed, Ewos and Skretting.

Annual Dinner - Lerwick Hotel October 2 2006
At the BMFA’s annual dinner at the Lerwick Hotel, which coincided with the conference, Shetland MSP Tavish Scott told guests that the fish farming industry has transformed itself in recent years.

Praising the quality of the farmed cod that was on the menu, Mr Scott said: “In 1999 fish farming was top of the agenda – sometimes not for the right  reasons, but since them the industry has moved forward for all the right reasons.”

Meanwhile, Magnus Skretting of Marine Harvest said communication and co-operation between marine fish farmers was vital for the industry to succeed. And in a bid to aid this process, he issued an invitation for next year’s BMFA conference to be held in Hjlemeland in Norway.

Also speaking was John Goodlad of Shetland Halibut, who criticised the rent farmers have to pay to the Crown Estate and the bureaucracy the industry faces.

“We need to stem the tide of summary bureaucracy and regulation. We are a sustainable and environmentally responsible industry but the amount of red tape is putting us at a serious disadvantage with our competitors,” he said.

Farm Profile
John Goodlad’s Shetland Halibut Company has just harvested its first fish. The three kilo male halibut, which are being marketed and distributed by Framgord, are destined mainly for the restaurant trade.

John’s halibut farm on the west side of Shetland near Scalloway is a small operation that is tagged onto his nearby organic salmon farm. This helps to keep the venture viable in what is still very much an industry in its infancy.

However, John sees the future potential for growth in halibut farming as being good.

“Halibut occupies a niche market and this is a big advantage – certainly for the time being,” he says.

“There is no problem in getting a good price for the product and the market has tremendous potential for growth. The main halibut market in Europe at the moment is in Norway and if the Norwegians are eating more of this fish than anyone else, then this indicates an enormous potential in the UK, France and Germany with their much higher populations.

“However, it is important that producers don’t compete needlessly with each other.”

Despite the predictions of a bright future, John maintains that there are still important problems to overcome. A particular difficulty is the high price of juveniles – currently £6 or £7 each – which combined with the long grow-on time of around four years means there is a huge initial investment just to get the venture off the ground, especially since mortality until harvest can be in the region of 20 to 25%.

Another major problem is the annual maturation of male halibut, which means they don’t feed from October to January, resulting in a very poor food conversion ratio (FCR). The only way around this problem is to try and grade out and market the smaller male halibut before they mature – as John is doing at the moment.

“Halibut farming remains an enormous risk. There are still only a small number of halibut farmers and this means that there is not a huge flow of information preventing people from making the same mistakes. It is important that we communicate as much as we can,” says John.

“The ideal scenario would be to receive all juvenile fish at a kilo each and have all-female populations at a price of around £5 each. That is a great challenge for hatcheries, but if this could be achieved, then the industry would be poised for take-off and would be a very attractive prospect for investors.”

John first got into halibut farming in 1999 when he started to ongrow some fish on the east side of Shetland at Bressay. Although this trial was moderately successful, his next intake was not until 2003 when he took in 10,000 juveniles from Fiskey in Iceland and transferred his ongrowing operation to the west side of Shetland. A further 20,000 fish were taken in 2004 and the first intake of one kilo juveniles arrived in 2005.

The fish, which are held in steel square cages, are hand-fed to demand. The taut net at the bottom of the four-metre deep cage has a mesh diameter just large enough to allow the feed pellets to lie and not drop through to the seabed.

The expected annual harvest in a couple of years time will be around 200 tonnes and John anticipates that it will probably stay at this level for a few years thereafter. He is hoping to get around £8 per kilo ex-farm, although so far he has managed a very reasonable £7.00 to £7.50, with the halibut having been sold as whole fish, mainly for the restaurant trade.

“The venture is not big enough as a stand-alone operation but it works very well operating in tandem with our salmon farm by keeping costs down,” says John.